using land wisely (合理利用土地)原文加翻译

Using Land WiselyA very important world problem-in fact, I am inclined to say it is the most important of all the great world problems which face us at the present time-is the rapidly increasing pressure of population on land and on land resources.一个十分重要的世界性难题（事实上我更倾向于说它是我们目前所面临的所有世界性大难题中最重要的）是对于土地和土地资源来说快速增长的人口压力。

It is not so much the actual population of the world but its rate of increase which is important. It works out to be about 1.6per cent per annum net increase. 重要的是人口的增长率，而不是实际世界人口数量。

世界人口正大约以每年1.6%的净速率在增长。

In terms of numbers this means something like forty to fifty-five million additional people every year-Canada has a population of twenty million-rather less than six months, climb in world population. 从数字上看来，这意味着，甚至在少于六个月的时间里，世界人口中就会增加大约40,000,000到55,000,000个人。

Take Australia. There are ten million people in Australia. So, it takes the world less than three months to add to itself a population which peoples that vast country. 以澳大利亚为例，那儿有一千万人口，所以只需要花费不到三个月的时间增长的世界人口数就能达到这个硕大的国家的人口水平。

Let us take our own crowded country-England and Wales: forty-five to fifty million people-just about a Year's supply. By this time tomorrow, and every day, there will be added to the earth about 120,000 extra people - just about the population of the city of York. 再以人口密度大的国家—英格兰和威尔士为例，45,000,000到50,000,000的人口相当于一年的世界人口增长量。

直至今日，每天地球上都会多出12万人口，这相当于约克市的人口数量。

I am not talking about birth rate. This is net increase. To give you some idea of birth rate, look at the second hand of your watch. Every second three babies are born somewhere in the world. Another baby! Another baby! Another baby! You cannot speak quickly enough to keep pace with the birth rate. 我在讨论的不是出生率，而是净增长。

为了让你大概了解出生率，请看着手表的秒针，每一秒都有三个婴儿在世界的某个地方出生。

一个！又一个！再一个！你说的再快也赶不上出生率。

This enormous increase of population will create immense problems. By A.D- 2000, unless something desperate happens, there will be as many as 7,000,000,000 people on the surface of this earth! So this is a problem which you are going to see in your lifetime.巨大的人口增长会带来巨大的问题。

到2000年，除非有令人绝望的事发生，地球上的人口将会达到70亿之多。

所以这是在你有生之年会遇到的问题。

Why is this enormous increase in population taking place? It is really due to the spread of the knowledge and the practice of what is coming to be called Death Control. You have heard of Birth Control? Death Control is something rather different.为什么人口的大量增长会发生呢？这是因为知识的传播和将会被成为“死亡控制”的举措。

你听说过“计划生育”吧？“死亡控制”是完全不同的概念。

Death Control recognizes the work of doctors and the nurses and the hospitals and the death services in keeping alive people who, a few years ago, would have died of some of the incredibly serious killing disease and dirt, Medical examinations at school catch diseases. “死亡控制”是医生护士、医院和殡葬服务机构的工作，这个工作是让几年前就可能因为难以治愈的疾病和学校体检中发现的疾病而死亡的人们活下来。

If you are seriously ill there is an ambulance to take you to a modern hospital. Medical care helps to keep people alive longer. We used to think seventy was a good age; now eighty, ninety, it may be, are coming to be recognized as a normal age for human beings. People are living longer because of this Death Control, and fewer children are dying, so the population of the world is shooting up. 如果你病入膏肓了，救护车会把你送进现代化医院。

医疗护理会帮助人们活得更久。

我们过去常认为70岁已是高龄。

现在，80或90岁将有可能被认为是人类的正常岁数。

因为“死亡控制”，人们活得更久，更少的孩子会死亡，所以世界人口数量直线上升。

Imagine the position if you and I and everyone else living on earthshared the surface between us. How much should we have each? It would be just over twelve acres—the sort of size of a small holding.想象着如果我们每个生活在地球上的人要分配地表面积。

我们每人应该拥有多少呢？应该只有12英亩多的一小块地。

But not all that is useful land which is going to produce food. We can cut out one-fifth of it, for example, as being too cold. That is land which is covered with ice and snow—Antarctica and Greenland and the great frozen areas of northern Canada. 但是不是所有都是可以用来生产食物的有用的地。

比如我们可以减去其中五十分之一的过于寒冷的土地，例如南极和格陵兰岛和加拿大北部的大冰冻地区的土地，那些土地被冰雪覆盖。

Then we can cut out another fifth as being too dry—the great deserts of the world like the Sahara and the heart of Australia and other areas where there is no known water supply to feed crops and so to produce food. 然后我们可以再减去其中五十分之一的过于干旱的土地--撒哈拉等地球上的大沙漠、澳大利亚中部和其他没有可以浇灌庄稼和生产食物的水源的地方。

Then we can cut out another fifth as being too mountainous or with too great an elevation above sea level. Then we can cut out another tenth as land which has insufficient soil, probably just rock at the surface. 我们还可以再减去其中五十分之一的过于多山或海拔过高的土地，再减去另外十分之一的贫瘠的、大部分地表是岩石的土地。

Now, out of the twelve acres only about four are left as suitable for producing food. But not all that is used. It includes land with enough rainfall or water, and enough heat which, at present, we are not using, such as, for example, the great Amazon forests and Congo forest and the grasslands of Africa. 现在，12英亩的土地中只剩下了4英亩是适合于生产食物的。